Marc Marquez “happy” with new Ducati development at Jerez MotoGP test

Now facing a 44-point deficit to title leader Marco Bezzecchi after crashing in Sunday’s Spanish MotoGP, Marc Marquez had aerodynamic and chassis developments to try on his Ducati during Monday’s test.

The reigning world champion left Jerez as the fastest Ducati rider behind a trio of Aprilias, briefly leading the timesheets with a 1m36.277s in the afternoon session.

Marquez, who quipped that his early race exit meant he felt fresher than expected on Monday, put in a total of 68 laps, declaring his physical condition as “okay”.

On the technical side, a revised fairing and swingarm aero were the most obvious developments, but he also had a modified chassis.

“I started to feel a bit more confident with the front, especially in the left corners, which was normally one of my strong points, and I was struggling there during these first races,” Marc Marquez said.

“And right corners also, we improved a bit. So basically, we don't lose the strong points, and we gained a bit in the weak points.”

“Marc is happy”

Team manager Davide Tardozzi confirmed aero had been the priority, while explaining that Marquez and team-mate Pecco Bagnaia are currently battling different difficulties with the GP26.

“We investigate a lot the aerodynamic area because it seems that is one of the possibilities we have to improve the bike and honestly we found something,” Tardozzi told the official MotoGP website.

“Marc is happy about this new configuration. While on the other side, Pecco still has some question marks.”

Tardozzi added: “Each of them would like to improve a [different] area. 

"Pecco would like to improve the brake area and the entry of the corner, while Marc is more the fast corner speed. So we tried to find something for both of them.

“Again, on Marc's side, maybe yes. On Pecco’s side, we'll see.”

Bagnaia, who also failed to finish Sunday’s race, due to a technical issue, finished tenth on the combined timesheets, 0.727s behind Ai Ogura.

“Quite satisfied about some items,” he said. “Aerodynamics package is working well, so it's clear that we need more time to understand everything and the team need to analyse everything, but quite confident that today we did a little step.

“We just need more now to be more focused on stopping the bike. And today we tried something, maybe we found a direction. So, for Le Mans, I hope that we will have something to improve.”